Wednesday May 29, 15.5mi/24.9km

New Mexico State Line (0.0/5840ft) to Mineral Creek TH (15.5/5440ft) (NM)

I woke up to the sounds of mooing somewhere nearby. Yep, I must be in New Mexico. I had a nice easy 10-mile roadwalk into town, and pretty much all downhill too.

About halfway through the roadwalk, I passed by a junction that had a sign for “Sunflower Mesa”. It made me smile, for some reason the word sunflower is always coming up in random places.

I made it to the Alma store and grill just in time to catch breakfast, at 10:30am, or so I thought.

I had forgotten to change my watch to mountain time (Arizona is on Pacific time most of the year), so really it was 11:30am. So I ordered lunch, and then also milkshakes ensued. After lunch I went next door to the little market, and bought a few food items. I didn’t need to buy much, since I still had extra food from the previous section. Then I walked to the next building down the street, the Alma Guest House, which lets hikers shower and do laundry for a good price.

I was there for a couple of hours while the laundry machines worked their magic, and relaxed in the nice comfortable sitting room.

I met the owner and she was very nice, and I could tell from all the decor that she is also a rancher.

After the heat of the day had passed, I set off down the road at 4:30pm, and had a couple hours of roadwalking to get back into the mountains.

Fortunately it was mostly in the shade of some nearby hills, it’s quite warm down in this valley. I made it to the trailhead and decided to camp there, since camping prospects ahead were uncertain.

I felt like I had spent half the day eating and relaxing and getting cleaned up, and yet somehow I had still hiked 16 miles. Nice easy day!

My original plan was to connect the MRT to the GET (Grand Enchantment trail), and hike that to its end in Albuquerque, 400 miles away. But it’s getting very warm, so I will see how far I get before the season turns too hot. I’ll at least make it another 3 days, to Gila Hot Springs, which is on the CDT and an easy exit-point from the wilderness.